Kim Delaney's Philadelphia Experiment

A disheveled looking and confused Kim Delaney may have needed a little help from TOTUS (i.e., the teleprompter of the United States) on Thursday night.

The Army Wives actress was in her hometown to participate in the Liberty Award presentation to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia when she ran into some problems with a teleprompter malfunction--or something else--and was escorted off the stage. It has been widely reported that Delaney, best remembered for her role on NYPD Blue, has struggled with substance abuse, which may have undermined her career.



In the 2001-2002 television season, Delaney starred as criminal defense attorney Kathleen Maguire on the series Philly. Although it contained a lot of the Hollywood nonsense common in legal dramas, the 22-episode show is definitely worth a look. The one-and-only season (discontinued for low ratings) is available on Netflx for those two of you who haven't canceled their membership yet. Apart from the lovely Ms. Delaney (who sadly now appears to have a tattoo), the best character on the show was the quirky but earnest prosecutor played by supporting actor Rick Hoffman.

New Labor Department Rule Could Create Worker "Hit Lists"

When you think about the radical ideologues currently infesting most federal agencies, overblown complaints about Bush administration politicized hiring practices seem absolutely silly. The latest example, according to The Union Label Blog: The U.S. Department of Labor wants to enact a rule that could result in the disclosure of the addresses of temporary workers:

These forms will be public knowledge as soon as the government gets its hands on them. That means that workers’ names and home addresses will also be public knowledge. That means that union thugs can get hold of these names and addresses so that they can amass lists of workers to scare away from their job in order to save union jobs.

Does doing the bidding of Big Labor really seem like the best way to put America back to work?

While Obama sits there on his mountaintop scolding businesses for not hiring, not expanding, and not growing, while he mouths the nice sounding words of “cutting regulations” his regulatory agencies are issuing one business-killing new rule after another. Every month is a new anti-business rules change and this one could result in blood being spilled by his dangerous union pals.

Benjamin Netanyahu--Leader of the Free World?

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, shines the light of truth in the U.N. General Assembly yesterday:



With regard to this speech, Pajamas Media CEO Roger L. Simon writes the following:

And yet his talk was extremely eloquent and well-delivered. In an atmosphere former NY Mayor Koch describes as a “cesspool,” Netanyahu was the only man, the only statesman, genuinely to stand up for the principles of guilt-ridden Western civilization.

Noteworthy too is that the Israeli PM speaks (and no doubt writes) the English language far better than any of our presidential candidates, not to mention our cliche-ridden liberalist incumbent who is even loath to appear before children without a teleprompter.

Bibi Netanyahu has grown up and grown into the kind of statesman the world and, alas, this country needs.

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Danny Ayalon explains the history of the conflict in the region in these videos:




Historian Victor Davis Hanson provides some further background:

It is trendy to blame Israeli intransigence for all these bleak developments. But to do so is simply to forget history. There were three Arab efforts to destroy Israel before it occupied any borderlands after its victory in 1967. Later, it gave back all of Sinai and yet now faces a hostile Egypt. It got out of Lebanon — and Hezbollah crowed that Israel was weakening, as that terrorist organization moved in and stockpiled thousands of missiles pointed at Tel Aviv. Israel got out of Gaza and earned as thanks both rocket showers and a terrorist Hamas government sworn to destroy the Jewish state.

The Arab Middle East damns Israel for not granting a “right of return” to Palestinians who have not lived there in nearly 70 years. But it keeps embarrassed silence about the more than half-million Jews whom Arab dictatorships much later ethnically cleansed from Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo, and sent back into Israel. On cue, the Palestinian ambassador to the United States again brags that there will be no Jews allowed in his newly envisioned and American-subsidized Palestinian state — a boast with eerie historical parallels.

Rick Perry Fail

Who's having a worse week--Netflix or Texas Governor Rick Perry? After three debates, the debating skills of the soon-to-be-former GOP frontrunner seem to getting worse, not better. Let's remember that the 2008 GOP nominee also failed to communicate during the nationally televised general election presidential debates against Obama; it was one missed opportunity after another, and we've seen this movie before and it doesn't end well.

Meantime, despite all his faults, Mitt Romney seems to be getting stronger and stronger at the podium. He may wind up getting the nomination by default. That being said, all along we've felt that the "best candidate" is the one that can stand up on that national stage next fall and effectively and clearly communicate with the broader "Dancing with the Stars" electorate. For better or worse, running for high office is a performance business. Prof. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection puts it well:

On appearances, Perry came across once again as ill-prepared, stumbling, and uncomfortable.I cringe at the thought of the Rick Perry from last night’s debate on stage in October 2012 against Obama with the whole country watching. I hope there is another Rick Perry out there, because last night’s Rick Perry would not stand a chance on stage against our smooth-talking, fact-misstating Presidentt.

After watching the debate participants (along with admittedly a lot of channel surfing), the best candidate would seem to be a combination of New Gingrich's debating skills, Rick Perry's military background, Mitt Romney's business experience (and excluding the horrid RomneyCare implemented while he was Massachusetts Governor), Herman Cain's inspirational solutions-oriented message, the non-wacky parts of Ron Paul's libertarian philosophy, and Michelle Bachmann's charisma. Even John Huntsman came across far better than Perry.

Note to GOP candidates: Please look into the camera. Your true audience is the viewer/voter at home; the media questioner in the venue is irrelevant. For some reason, Democrats get the memo about looking directly into the camera but Republicans traditionally seem utterly clueless as to who they really are trying to convince.

Update: In response to Perry's disdain for the smoothest debater, Prof. Jacobson offers some further cogent comments:

That’s true but only to a point. We don’t need the smoothest debater, but we do need someone with the minimum required debating smoothness.

Like it or not, in September and October 2012 there are going to be debates which will be watched by an enormous percentage of the electorate, and the mainstream media will be unforgiving of mistakes by the Republican nominee. A miserable performance, on par with the one Perry had Thursday night, would be a disaster.

By contrast, strong debate performances against Obama, holding Obama accountable in front of tens of millions of people, exposing his failures for what they are, could seal the deal. The mainstream media will not perform that task for us, so our nominee needs to do it. Perry has not shown so far that he is capable of that; it’s not smoothness, its preparation and execution.

Erik Bedard: You've Been Served

While a sheriff or a marshal usually do the honors, most jurisdictions allow legal papers such as a summons and complaint to be served by any "indifferent person." But would you call a dude showing up in the Boston Red Sox locker room wearing a Yankees t-shirt indifferent?

[Process server Tom] Cabral didn’t bother to hide the fact he is a Yankees fan. In fact, he proudly wore a Yankees shirt while he served Bedard the papers.

Cabral was there to hand Red Sox starting pitcher Erik Bebard--formerly of the Orioles and Mariners--court documents in connection with a child support matter. The transaction was handled amicably by both men. The Red Sox wound up losing the game, but Bedard was not part of the decision.

Source: New York Post

[photo credit: Keith Allison]

Kindergartner Brings Crack Pipe to Show and Tell

The assignment in this Missouri kindergarten classroom was to bring "important family items" like pictures for show and tell. So the child brought in his mom's crack pipe and some rocks. School officials notified police who executed a search warrant at the home, resulting in charges of possession of a controlled substance and one count of first-degree child endangerment against the mother.

Casey Anthony Owes Florida $100K For Caylee Investigation

Judge Belvin Perry has ruled that Casey Anthony must reimburse the state of Florida nearly $100,000 to reimburse law enforcement agencies for the investigation into the disappearance of her daughter Caylee. Once again she got off lightly in that prosecutors and cops sought $500,000 in costs. In reaching his decision, Judge Perry determined that "the costs should cover only the period when detectives were investigating a missing person, and not the homicide investigation -- a sum of $97,676."